THE HORSE WHISPERER WITH THE CAMERA

“The Raw Horse” is an hymn to the relationship between horses and human beings. Horses are representing for the photographer pure beauty, peace and freedom. The Raw Horse is a series of fine prints as limited editions, photographic objects and sculptures – for galleries and collectors.

Sebastiano Vitale, who is responsible for the concept of this fantastic project, is working for the past 15 years in the field of art,  mass communication and visual journalism.

The exclusive interview gives an insight  into his world.

- When have you been the first time in touch with horses? 

In Sardinia, Italy. I was 12 years old and the little village, where my family used to go, was almost desert.  A few horses ran around wildly in an open field. It has been quite an incredible feeling.

- Have you always been fascinated by horses?

Since childhood I feel great love for animals – they are simple, beautiful and they don’t have hidden agendas. I always felt a kind of inferiority complex for the simple and perfect life of those animals who are lucky enough to live freely and not being hurt by humans. Grown up with this feeling, it led to great respect and The Raw Horse project gave me the opportunity to translate this respect into art.

- Do you ride?

Yes, but I am terrible … I am far away from being a good rider. I use to take picture while riding and last time I used to do this, I fell down during the galopp.

- what do you love about horses?

I love their beauty, their way to be simply out of problems like money, stress, taxes, duties. They are just there – ready to eat, to run or to sleep. It may sounds a little bit odd …  But I envy them a lot. For me they are beautiful, elegant, pure. From a visual point of view you couldn’t invent anything more beautiful, besides women, few men, tigers, lions and some other animals that are elegant and magnetic in their proportions and behaviors.

- When was the first time you’ve had a camera in your hand?

I work with video and audiovisual art since the  late 90′s – from radical experiments to documentaries and TV productions. But I never shot a single photo until 3 years ago, when I’ve been contacted by XL, a major italian magazine, for an article about a bizarre tour in Buenos Aires. Friends gave me a nice camera and the story took its course.  Since that I’ve published endlessly for 3 years for magazines in Italy, UK, Russia, Switzerland. I’ve started to feel a little bit uncomfortable from a visual point of view. Working as photojournalist is amazing, but you have visual restrictions and you can’t avoid some shots that are maybe not that interesting. You have also to tell stories, so you can’t work freely with metaphors or abstractions.

I’ve decided for myself to move from journalism to pure art, focusing with 100% on The Raw Horse project. What I’ve kept from photojournalism is to enjoy reality. I’ve recognized that I’m not a photographer who doesn’t prefer working day by day in the studio . I work hard to find particular situations, anywhere, of any kind, following the instinct and the flow. I’ve immersed into my own project  and it is quite hypnotic. I can’t think about anything else while shooting. After getting some good shots I’ve got exhausted, regardless if I’ve had 10 minutes or 8 hours shooting time. Only wrong situations or bad shots give me a serious frustration and I guess those are common diseases in photojournalism. Sometimes you work hard to get to a weird place and then you discover it was completely useless or totally different from what you’ve expected.

- what do you think about photography? 

Photography is for me personal like painting with reality. Photography is like literature, cinema, music – they are same bridges to connect you with something else and getting lost for a while. My approach is getting inside the thematic and don’t give up until you have reached your goal. Sometimes you spend a year finding the right place, but need only few minutes to shoot. You find the subject, you play with it, teasing each other, translate this in an image, feeling free to get rough and not respecting the rules. I don’t care a lot about technique, I like movement, sometimes photos are simply stupid, especially the thousands of photo we see on facebook – from yesterday’s dinner to holidays. Quite often people are frozen in an unnatural, stupid and meaningless position. Movement gives you the opportunity to transform any kind of moment into a beautiful story.

Horses move, they are free, they are the essence of freedom … and freedom is life, what is movement again. I like to use photography to express what has happened before and what will happen after the shot – in this fact it is possible to jump inside a story for a second or an hour. I like treat a photo more like a painting and I use movement also to create some interesting textures. I never took photos without having a project in mind. I always felt that there are too many photos, so you have to be very careful about what you do if you have respect for your eye and for your profession. There are millions of new photos shot everyday. It is hard to do something that could arise from this ocean of images.

- Goals you have set for yourself in the next years ?

Follow this project, follow the flow and work on new projects. I began a preliminary visual study for a project which is extremely different from The Raw Horse, but it’s not yet ripe.
I’m pretty sure that I will work on The Raw Horse for years – the equine world is too huge and too fascinating.

- What else is to say about you?

I love this planet and its stories – life is fun. I’m open to life, I love to switch from context to context.

May a meaningful remembrance and it may sounds unreal, but while I’ve helped a nigerian footballer years ago, I’ve become the football agent of 4 guys. I don’t understand football, but I can’t stop following the stream of adventures.

- Plans for the future?

I hope to have in front of me 50 years of random future.

Thank you to Sebastiano Vitale for taking time for this interview.

For more informations, feel free to discover Vitale’s homepage :

http://therawhorse.com/

All rights of the pictures are by : Sebastiano Vitale / “The Raw Horse”